speech-dispatcher 0.6.4 issue

[Hynek Hanke]

 > I installed my speech-dispatcher 0.6.4 this morning
 > I have speech-dispatcher configured to add only one
 > module, flite. It> works fine, and I have software speech
 > with flite. But it blocks the /dev/dsp device so that other
 > applications cannot use it.

Hi Chuck,

this shouldn't be. I think the cause is very likely one of three
things.

You might have flite configured to use OSS instead of ALSA.
Please look at /usr/local/etc/speech-dispatcher/modules/flite.conf
for FliteAudioOutputMethod . It should be set to "alsa".

In case you are using "alsa", then the reason can be that you
are loading either another output module which uses OSS.
Be sure to keep only the AddModule line for flite in speechd.conf,
others comment out with hash.

If neither of these is true, you are using ALSA, but it blocks
itself, and cannot emulate /dev/dsp properly. This was long
a bug of ALSA, that a system user playing sound through ALSA
will block all other system users from connecting to ALSA.
Since Speech Dispatcher is running as root and you want to
play sounds as a regular user, this might be a problem. Upgrade
to more recent versions of ALSA should solve the problem
(to test whether this is the reason, try running speechd as root
and aplay some sound as root -- if it works, ALSA blocks other
users than root, as described...)

I hope it helps, otherwise please write more.

Have a nice day,
Hynek Hanke